"Well, for starters, Cook is not a people person," Sobotta writes to RW's Dan Lyons. "He certainly will not stand behind someone if the going gets rough. He is not that kind of guy. I sense no personal loyalty in him, and I suspect employees already understand that."

It gets worse: "Technology-wise, I think Tim Cook is a lightweight. I never felt passion for technology from Tim like I did from Steve and some of the great engineers."

This is all pretty brutal, but we have to consider the source on it. Sobotta stopped working at Apple in 2004. He never reported directly to Cook.

And, while Lyons says Sobotta doesn't have an axe to grind, he also reports Sobotta recently had a nasty interaction with Apple. Sobotta wrote a memoir about his twenty years at Apple. Before publishing the memoir, he gave Apple a heads up. Apple sent him a legal letter that, according to Lyons, made him "extremely upset."

On the other hand, Sobotta seems to be positive on Cook at his blog, Applepeels. In April, he wrote, "Tim Cook might be the person who finally turns Apple into an adult company," and, "My experience with Tim Cook showed me someone who is willing to tinker with things until he gets them right."

That's a far cry from quotes like this that he sent to Lyons: "I don't think he relates well to people. Based on some of the people he has stuck with, I think he is poor judge of character," and "He is not a warm guy nor is he the type to go wandering the halls or Caffe Mac to find out what is happening. His preference is to tinker with spreadsheets and numbers. He is not a natural leader. He's a manager."

Again, this guy has been removed from Apple for eight years. And it's been an incredible eight years for Apple. So, clearly Tim Cook knows how to do some things right.